


burnt out and hallow (torn apart from inside)

by Morning_Glory_Skyes



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, i warned maiden this would happen, infection being weird, ive teased you enough about this, lowkey dehumanization from radiance, on screen murder, when will you learn . . . that your actions have consequences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:35:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27920881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morning_Glory_Skyes/pseuds/Morning_Glory_Skyes
Summary: Sometimes falling to Radiance is a quick tumble off of a cliff, crashing to the bottom in a blaze of orange.And sometimes it's a slow drag backwards, Her taking over without realization.
Relationships: Traitor Lord & Traitor Lord's Daughter (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 29





	burnt out and hallow (torn apart from inside)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maiden22](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maiden22/gifts).



> set in the Like a Ghost in My Own Body universe. 
> 
> i warned you i'd get you back for your teasing. get fucked, bitch

He's slipping.

Slowly. 

It's not a slide down a steep hill, not particularly icy or muddy the way the hills near Dirtmouth can be, but it's still a hill. Every step forward he takes, somehow he finds himself standing back before his last step. A downhill slope, that is slowly growing harder and harder to climb. 

Submit to our Light, something whispers. 

Keiza pushes it away, turning his face towards the gardens. Though long since abandoned by the former Queen of Hollownest, they make a suitable home for them after his sisters had driven them out. Infected, they'd claimed, like Keiza wasn't already perfectly aware of that. He knows what he's done, but he does not regret it. She promised him power, to aid in protecting what is his. 

And She had followed through, granted him the strength needed to guard everything under his command. He enjoys it, the thrumming of the power in his veins, Light burning away his enemies. 

His sisters are fools to deny the Light Her due. 

So is his daughter. She's begging him to return, to rescind the Light's gift, to turn his back on Her. He's humored her demands for the last few rounds, but even his patience is reaching its end. 

Banishment is permanent. Even if he did turn his back on the Burning Light, there would be no place for him to return to. The Mantis Village is eternally closed to him now. There will be no acceptance for him from them other than his death at their hands. 

He will not die to them. He has too many things to do.

His daughter tries again, pleading with him to turn his back on Her grace and Light. She grabs at his arm, tugging and trying her best to drag his much larger form towards the exit. He shakes her off, turning away. Two of his warriors drag themselves forward, grabbing her arms and hauling her up, pinning her between them. She shrieks, demanding that they let her go.

Keiza turns to face them.

Kill it, comes the whisper. Kill the traitor. 

No, he thinks, horrified to his very core for the first time. This is his child, his only daughter, the last piece of his wife he has. 

His body does not listen. He does not know when it stopped listening to him.

It lumbers forward. 

She is restrained by the arms by two warriors, their gazes blank with orange. Her struggles increase, her wails of 'No!' and 'Please! Father!' are unheeded. Every step feels like the final tolling of a bell, ringing its last song before it is forever silenced. 

Sharp, endlessly glinting in the light of the gardens, Her blade comes up. Two slashes, brought down sharp and vicious, aimed where it would be both painful and quick. Chitin splits with the blow, green and yellow spilling out freely. Her voice, young and untouched by the Light, raises upwards in a screech of pain.

The traitor child stumbles, dropping to her knees with a choked gasp when dropped by the warriors. She clutches at her throat, at her abdomen, desperately attempting to stop her insides from sliding out. It doesn't work. There is too much, too fast, and she slumps to the ground.

Good.

Unmoving. Unneeded. Unwanted. She has better, more useful things to command.

Blood drips from Her claws. Two others drag the corpse away to dispose of it. She does not care.

( _He wails his grief, but his mouth does not open, his body does not move._

_It is no longer his to command._

_There is a Traitor in the Queen's Gardens._ )


End file.
